He was the least famous person that had ever been on the show, and I didn't get it, until his marital status was explained and we saw that Cobie was sitting on the opposing team aching to grind him into submission.

I knew that was him. He's actually been on the show quite a bit (as your link shows). I'll have to go back and rewatch the episodes he's in to see if there's any hints that he's gay, or if that was just an invention by the writers in this episode to give James a reason to dislike him.

Wow. I'm pretty shocked the actual wedding wasn't in the final episode!!! I thought this episode was going to be all set up but they fooled me! So I guess the finale will be the reception party, where Ted will see Mother playing in the band, then Ted leaving for the station and finally meeting her. I really hope we get a lot of Ted/Mother screen time.

So great to finally see Robin meet Mother as well, but it's a shame that it's only in the penultimate episode. I still want to see future scenes of Mother with the entire gang.

I'm a little disappointed that the entire point of this season, leading up to the wedding, and it was all under Future Ted's narration. Oh well. The episode overall worked for me. And although I've never been 100% convinced about Barney/Robin, it won me over here.

And I would love to see the Mother with the gang. I'm finding it really surprising that we've not seen it happen this season at all. Just Ted with the Mother.

I'm sure the producers are keenly aware of what they're doing. Getting the wedding out of the way now, allows for more screentime for Ted and the Mother in the finale.

I mean think about it ... when you walked out of Attack of the Clones, didn't you basically have a running list of things that you knew were pretty much guaranteed to be showin in Revenge of the Sith?

I applaud the producers for defying our expectations (again) and for telling the story they want to tell. Last night's episode was good. Not great, but it finally once and for all solidified that Ted was over Robin and that Robin wanted to be with Barney. Marshall and Lily stole the show though with their vows, although "Stinson out!" was pretty amusing.

We didn't need another tracking shot of all the recurring characters we wouldn't get to see again like last week. This was just another episode of HIMYM and it was delightful.